The child sensation behind the viral hit song “Eastern Rosellas” has hit a creative slump, after the deadly H5 aviation flu strain wiped out many of the birds that inspire his songs.
7-year-old Miles Phillips was due to return to the studio this week to record a follow-up single about the giant petrel, but his plans for another catchy, upbeat chart-topper were thrown into disarray when he learned the petrel has been found dead in large numbers off the Queensland coast.
Plans for a jangle-pop B-side about the greater crested tern were also shelved when the young superstar saw pictures of their rotting, stinking carcasses on a Western Australian beach.
“I’m at a crossroads,” the young musician confessed. “It’s not easy coming up with dancefloor-ready, power-pop bangers when your seabird muse develops purple discolouration and is gasping for air.”
Miles said he and his father had been working hard to create another viral hit earworm about the southern brown skua but were struggling to find words that rhymed with “respiratory distress.”
“Do I change musical styles to meet the moment?” the young musician asked. “Or do I simply acknowledge that pop music, much like avian influenza, is highly infectious – and therefore the perfect genre to capture the decimation of Australia’s bird population?”
Miles said if the bird flu strain ever reaches his beloved eastern rosella, he will seek to release a reworked version of his breakthrough internet hit, retitled “Putrid Rosellas”.
